Carr: Instead of rail, make tracks to N.H.
by Howie Carr Thursday, February 28, 2013
If you absolutely, positively had to get somewhere by a certain time, who would you trust more to get you there?
Fung Wah Bus or Gov. Deval Patrick?
Say what you will about Fung Wah, it’s Dreaded Private Sector, not some spoiled hack who’s had everything in his life handed to him.
And a trip on Fung Wah costs 15 bucks. Does anyone doubt that Deval’s preposterous Fall River-to-Boston high-speed rail will come in for less than $2 billion?
Which is why I suspect that Deval is going to have a problem putting across his “legacy” plan to become America’s next railroad baron. The headline on his new website is “Choosing Growth in Our Communities.”
Surely he meant to say, “Choosing Taxes in Our Communities.”
Not that Deval has an inflated opinion of his own proposed boondoggle.
“When we decided settling the west was important, we built the transcontinental railroad.”
He’s comparing the Pittsfield-to-New York line to the transcontinental railroad? At least he got the name right, though. His very brilliant mentor, Barack Obama, has been known to refer to the “intercontinental railroad.” Isn’t a Harvard education great?
“Earlier this year, the lieutenant governor and I laid out a plan to prepare for a better future.”
Nice to include Crash Murray in there. Of course the only plan Tiny Tim is laying out right now is one to avoid going to Club Fed, once his dear friend, convicted felon Mike McLaughlin, begins singing to the grand jury.
“Many people ask, how will this plan help me?”
It helps you if you think you have too much money. Because once Deval starts taking care of the don’t-kill-the-job trade unions growing rich off their Davis-Bacon so-called prevailing wages on these never-to-be-completed rail projects, your wallet will be lighter. A lot lighter.
Why do we need better public transportation, Deval?
“Police and firefighters need it to get to emergencies.”
Police and other first responders riding to 911 calls on the T? If that’s the future in Massachusetts, my suggestion is, buy a gun. And a fire extinguisher.
It won’t cost much, of course. The income tax will “only” go up from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent. Maybe that’s the real legacy Deval’s looking for — to beggar working people by jacking up the income tax rate to Dukakis-era levels.
What I don’t understand is, if these new railroads are such a good “investment in the future,” why don’t we let private companies bid on them, like we’re doing with casinos? Surely they’ll see what a gold mine it will be, running empty trains back and forth from Boston to Bristol County.
Hey, Deval, you want to improve transportation in this state? I’ll tell you what we really need. Six-lane highways north, to New Hampshire, so we can get the hell out of this state, first for tax-free shopping, and finally, forever.
In the meantime, Fung Wah forever!
Tonight just past midnight the former Rush Radio/Talk 1200,
which yukked it up for the past 7 months as a comedy outlet, switches to Bloomberg Business Radio. It’s what they call
an LMA I believe—limited marketing agreement. Clear Channel
owns em, leases the station to Bloomberg.
>> ““A lot of people say, ‘Who wants to be highly ranked among 55-year-old men?’ You know what, 55-year-old men and women have all the wealth in this country and we do really well there,” he said.
(Article mentioned Al Mayers—not sure but I think he used to be prog dir of WRKO way back, and he had an assistant named Kevin Straley. Howie would refer to them on air and he called Kevin “Little Al” as in the apparent nickname for race car driver Al Unser Jr.)
LOL! Loved the Fung Wah discussion on Howie's show yesterday... harrowing tales!
We see those Fung Wah buses careening up and down the Mass. Turnpike (and occasionally on highways in CT) all the time. We do our best to stay far away from 'em... ;-)